GREEN BELT AND
RESETTLEMENT TOWNS
OF THE NEW DEAL
History, Heritage and a Living Legacy
PLAN AHEAD
• There are many ways you can engage your members with
this Lecturer’s Program.
• Sing or play songs from the Depression Era or a song that
references the Green Towns like “Song of the South”.
• Note: Open lyrics by double clicking document outside of presentation view.
• Consider having a 30’s themed night and ask people to dress for
the era.
• Create a special certificate and honor those who lived through the
Depression and ask them to speak a bit about the experience.
• Have your members complete the Green Belt Towns Word Search
during or after the meeting.
• Note: Open word search by double clicking
document outside of presentation view.
Introduction to the New Deal
• The New Deal was a series of domestic programs
enacted during the Depression Era through laws and
Executive Orders.
• Focused on 3 R’s
• Relief for unemployed
• Recovery of economy to normal levels
• Reform of financial system to prevent another depression
PERSONALIZE YOUR PRESENTATION
• Learn how the New Deal impacted your area.
• GO TO Living New Deal and find projects and details from
YOUR area to add to this slide. You may also insert
information you’ve found onto your fact sheet and your
presentation here.
Green Belt Towns
• The Green Belt Towns were a New Deal project
established in the mid 1930s.
• Planners considered these a model for a cooperative
future that failed to materialize.
• Three towns – also known as Garden Cities – were
created with affordable housing near schools and areas of
commerce, but also filled with the beauty of nature
through numerous parks and gardens.
• Greenbelt, Maryland
• Greendale, Wisconsin
• Greenhills, Ohio
• A fourth community in New Jersey was planned but
never built.
Other New Deal Town Projects
• Ninety-nine other towns were created outside
industrial centers with similar focus on
cooperative governance.
• Note: Open list by double clicking document outside of presentation view.
• Listen to a story of one of these towns that has
since lost much of its original identity.
• Read more about these towns:
• 'New Deal' Town Turns 75, Utopian Ideals Long Gone
Resettlement and its Visionaries
• The program fell under the short-lived Resettlement
Administration (April 1935 - December 1936) established by
Executive Order from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Rexford Guy Tugwell was its first and only director.
• The RA was absorbed by the Farm Security Administration
(1936 -1946), which focused on combatting American rural poverty
and was later replaced by the Farmer’s Home Administration
(1946 - 2006).
• Tugwell had set a goal of resettling 650,000 people from
‘agriculturally exhausted land’. However, the majority
of Congress strongly opposed this, leaving the RA
with funds to resettle only a few thousand individuals.
Resettlement Administration Objectives
• In starting this program during the Depression years, the
Resettlement Administration had three main objectives in
mind:
• To demonstrate a new kind of suburban community planning which
would combine many of the advantages of both city and country life
• To provide good housing at reasonable rent for moderate income
families
• To give jobs to thousands of unemployed workers which would
result in a lasting economic and social benefit to the
community in which the work was undertaken
How the Towns Came to Be
• The building of these towns provided much needed jobs
for those in skilled trades (brick layers, plumbers, carpenters,
electricians, etc.), as well as people others who worked at
clearing land, digging trenches, etc.
• These men and women were a part of the WPA (Works
Progress Administration), the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps),
and the NYA (National Youth Administration).
• The use of local building materials and supplies also
helped stimulate the local economy.
Features of Green Belt Towns
• Each town had certain similar criteria that needed to be met for it to
be considered a Green Belt Town.
• Near a major city to provide jobs for area residents
• Have a village center that had shops, a community center (which were
used for schools and community activities) and government offices
• Homes were to surround the village center
• Include a wide green belt of land surrounding the town that could easily be
used as farm land for raising crops or animals
• The most important aspect of these towns was to provide low income
families with affordable housing to raise their children in a safe
environment with access to large open green spaces. Pathways were
created in each section of homes to connect the sections to
each other, as well as provide a pathway to the village center.
Criteria to Become a Resident
• When the housing was originally built, the Federal
Government was the landlord. An individual had to meet
certain requirements in order to rent a place in any of the
three Green Belt Towns.
• Towns were oriented to be affordable for low-income
families.
• Having children was also important, even though there
were units that were referred as ‘Bachelor’ apartments &
‘Honeymoon Suites’.
• The government even considered an individual’s
moral character before deciding who was eligible
to rent a unit.
The First: Greenbelt, Maryland
• Greenbelt was a social experiment.
• It drew 5,700 applicants for the original 885 residences.
• In 1941, another 1,000 homes were added to provide housing for families
coming to Washington in connection with defense programs of World War II.
• The first families had to not only meet income criteria, but also
to demonstrate willingness to participate in community
organizations.
• The first families, who arrived on October 1, 1937, found no
established patterns or institutions of community life.
• Almost all of the first residents were under 30 years of age.
• A mix of blue and white collar workers, they reflected the
religious composition of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.—
Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish; but because of the racial
bias controlling public policy at that time, all were white.
Greendale, Wisconsin
• The government bought 3,400 acres of farm land three miles southwest of the
city limits of Milwaukee. The community was laid out with a belt of park land,
garden areas and farms encircling the entire so-called urban development.
• In the center is the business district; nearby, at the end of the wide center
street, are the village administrative offices, just as when the village was
opened for business in 1938.
• Greendale was originally developed by the government with the intent to
provide homes for families with an income level that would prevent them from
living in a suburban setting. The requirements for renting included an income
within the range $1,200 to $2,700 annually, a housing need, reliability in
financial matters, cleanliness in living habits, and suitable size of family for
available living units. When the size of a family changed, they had to move to
the appropriate living unit.
• There were 572 living units housed in 366 buildings when the village
was opened for occupancy on May 1, 1938.
Greenhills, Ohio
• 676 units were originally built
• Greenhills was one of the country’s first fully electrified
communities. In keeping with the cooperative tradition that
was strong within these three Green Belt towns, it was
home to Ohio’s first co-op mall shopping center.
• Like its sister cities, Greenhills is home to irreplaceable
Depression Era/New Deal artwork.
When the Government Got Out
• In 1952, Congress voted to sell off the Green Belt towns
and get out of the landlord business.
• Greenbelt, MD, citizens voted to form a housing cooperative, today
known as Greenbelt Homes, Inc., which purchased the houses.
• To this day, the original structures are co-op homes with restrictive
buying agreements that require homeowners to be tenants, except
for limited periods of time or in extreme circumstances. This is to
maintain support for affordable housing and home ownership for
the next generation of lower-income individuals who are living and
working in a major metropolitan area.
• Today, a co-op grocery store, bank and movie theatre still exist in
the town and there is a great emphasis on civic engagement.
• Homes in the other two Green Belt towns were purchased
privately.
Green Towns Cultural Influence
• Many poems and several literary works are set in or
reflect on Green Belt towns.
• One notable song, “Song of the South” (popularized by the
country band, Alabama, in the 1980s) has also been identified
as referring to a Green Belt town.
• The New Deal is referenced in the line “The cotton was short and
the weeds was tall, but Mr. Roosevelt's gonna save us all”.
• Lyrics go on to allude to Green Towns in the line “The county got
the farm and they moved to town”.
Fun Fact: Donalds Grange No. 497
• Located in Abbeville County, South Carolina on land donated by W. Maxie
Agnew, Donalds Grange hall was constructed in 1935 by the Works Progress
Administration (WPA) and was added to the National Register of Historic
Places on January 9, 1995.
• Donalds Grange previously served as
the town hall and library, as well as
the Grange hall. A new library was
built adjacent to the hall in 1959.
• The flagstone building, which is
known for its local design and
construction, was built from materials
furnished by the community and
members of the Grange.
• Learn more at Donalds Grange.
Additional Resources
• Read a scholarly book on the topic. While there are many, here’s a
good one to start with:
• Arnold, Joseph L. The New Deal in the Suburbs: A History of the Greenbelt
Town Program, 1935-1954. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press,
1971.
• See a few photos of the towns as they are today: New Deal Utopias
• Read/Listen to Green Towns Turn 75.
• Learn about Green Belt towns and other New Deal projects
endangered by time and eroding public interest and knowledge here.
• Watch a documentary :
• Green Towns USA (details)
• Prepared and adopted by the
National Grange Lecturer’s
Advisory Panel
• Education Committee,
Citizenship Group
Citizenship Group
Christine Hamp, WA
Marion Thornberry, IL
Grace Boatright, DC
• Contact or provide feedback
to the National Lecturer at
[email protected]
© 2015 National Grange
Related Topics for Lecturers
• The Grange and the Cooperative Movement
• Lecturer's program to come on this topic in early 2016 that will
focus on an early principle of the Grange and tie in with Grange
history and celebration as we head toward our 150th Anniversary in
2017.
• Gee’s Bend, AL, a resettlement town under the New Deal,
is famous for its quilts
• The Quilts of Gee's Bend are considered to be unique and one of
the most important African-American visual and cultural
contributions to the history of art within the United States.
• Lecturer’s program to come on this topic in early 2016 and ties in
with the overall focus on using quilts as a way to talk about the
Grange’s heritage and identity for the 150th Anniversary.
TAKE HOME ACTIVITY
• Help map the legacy!
• Ask your members if they know of a New Deal project in
your area that isn’t on the map.
• If so, encourage them to submit information and
supporting documents to The Living New Deal via email at
[email protected] or contact them by mail at
Department of Geography, 505 McCone Hall, University of
California, Berkeley, CA 94720-4740
FURTHER CHANCE TO ENGAGE
• The National New Deal Preservation Association is
looking for individuals to assist in gathering oral histories
of those who worked on New Deal projects.
• Information, including how to solicit oral histories and
release forms necessary to complete an oral history, is
available at the Association’s website.